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Snowy Owls and Eagles

Snowey Owls and Eagles

Snowy Owls and Eagles

Snowy Owls and Eagles

Snowy Owls and Eagles

Ludington State Park

Wednesday

I have never seen so many Canada geese goslings in one parade as this morning in the Tobico Marsh State Game Area at Kawkawlin, Michigan, between Bay City and Pinconning. Their two parents, or adopted parents, guide them through the waters of the big marsh near the Lake Huron shoreline. The geese are among dozens of game birds and songbirds seeming to pop up everywhere during my hike through the marshland set aside for them. D800, F5.6 at 1/800, ISO 400, 500mm lens at 500mm

Perched

This seagull was so fat I don’t even know how it could fly. In this photograph, it is actually sitting on top of a large garbage can. I made this image from sitting inside of my truck. The death stare he gave me cracked me up. The hardest part of shooting this photo was not laughing and shaking my camera.

Swans at Epworth

I know photographers who set up feeding stations and sophisticated lighting systems to increase their odds of making fabulous photographs of hummingbirds. I appreciate the thought and work that goes into that style of shooting as well as the outcome. As for me, my unplanned, unexpected encounter with this hummingbird at Dow Gardens in Midland is the kind of hunting in the wild approach I prefer. My adrenaline is flying off the charts but I have to work fast and smart to capture the hummingbird image I have always dreamed of making.

365 Week

I am thankful to see more and more bald eagles. This immature eagle was flying overhead as we were exploring the woods on the farm.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know, but I am thinking God's creations don't get any more beautiful than this snowy owl. It has taken me nearly two hours of not-so-patiently waiting to see this magnificent moment up close and personal with the aid of my largest telephoto lens.

While other seagulls sit tight on a frozen pond near Muskegon, this one does a fly-by, allowing me to nearly fill my viewfinder with its image. I have been patiently awaiting such a moment with my 500 millimeter telephoto lens mounted on my camera. Believing such a good thing will happen helps me wait longer. I am a positive thinker. I know it makes me happier and luckier.

Earlier today, I was in my backyard helping build a deck off the back of my house. While working, I kept seeing this little bird flying around and hopping from tree to tree. When trying to figure out what to photograph for my photo of the day, I remembered the beautiful bird from earlier in the day. F5.6 at 1/50, ISO 1600, 600 mm lens at 600 mm

365 Week

Tonight, I drove to my Grandpa and Grandma Reed's house to photograph some of the birds that frequent their beautiful yard. As I pulled into the driveway I spotted this male cardinal. Luckily for me, he stayed put for about 10 minutes, which allowed me to get in just the right spot to make this photograph. F4.0 at 1/200, ISO 1000, 600 mm lens at 600 mm

Nothing could have excited this Michigander more on a winter’s day photo excursion on M-22 than experiencing this eagle flying by so close that my 500-millimeter telephoto lens could seemingly reach out and touch it. The mature eagle was among several hunting for food on a January morning near Crystal Lake north of Frankfort. Brad and I were en route to photograph the Point Betsie Lighthouse when we spotted several eagles feeding just offshore by a large open-water seam in the ice. We saw one of the eagles fly to shore and roost in some tall pines on a nearby hillside. The lighthouse could wait; there might be an image here as good or better for the book we had started shooting, Todd and Brad Reed’s Michigan: Wednesdays in the Mitten. We would be proved correct. We quickly set up 25 yards on either side of the flight path and waited…and waited. I was rewarded with my all-time favorite eagle-in-flight image when one of the eagles chose to fly right by my hiding spot instead of Brad’s. The image was (and remains especially) meaningful to me because my Army Ranger son Tad served our country for several years as a 101st Airborne Screaming Eagle. This eagle was definitely screaming past. Once I got on target, I was able to squeeze off three shots as I swung the lens on my gimbal tripod head and tracked with the majestic bird. With fast action shots, a photographer can often pre-select the background; but often, time does not allow one to see at the fraction of a second of exposure exactly how the subject fits against the background. Back the next day on my computer at our gallery, this image screamed for attention and selection. The bird fit perfectly against the background, simplifying and making order out of what would have been chaotic one one-thousandth of a second earlier or later. Brad and I like to say, “Little things are big things.” On this shot, a fraction of a second made a big difference